Paw and Order
by Metatron85
Summary: Judy is trapped in the bank during a heist that is spiraling out of control. While she is trying to assess the situation on the inside, its up to Nick and the rest of the ZPD to make sure everyone makes it out alive. (Nick and Judy romantic pairing) Rated T for some language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well, here goes nothing. My very first** ** _Zootopia_** **story.**

 **I really hope you like it. I haven't given up on any of my other stuff but I needed something different to shake things up.**

 **This chapter is short but they will get longer. I just wanted to leave you guys with the initial setup.**

 **Please review and tell me what you think**

 **;-)**

* * *

Judy Hopps rounded the corner in a huff. No matter what time of day she would go there, you could never find decent parking by the bank. Savannah Central was always like that in general. She remembered it being the low point on her stint in parking duty. The worst was the commercial loaders who either couldn't do their job because somebody obscured the sidewalk, or they themselves were unloading and blocking others.

Things have been busy lately with paperwork and other business that's been eating up much of her time. The only way she was going to deposit her check was to go during her lunch hour.

Normally, Judy and her newly-appointed partner, Nick Wilde; would have lunch together. They were never fancy, either going to the greasy spoon two blocks from the precinct, or from one of the food trucks if they were in a particular hurry. Since she was taking care of her banking, she let Nick know he was on his own. He seemed a little disappointed but bounced back with the idea that he would go to that place that makes the amazing bean and rice burritos he loves so much. Judy made him swear not to consume those gas bombs when on the job because she had to share a car with him.

Finally able to put the cruiser in park, Judy got out and looked at how far the First Bank of Zootopia was. Judy had direct deposit with her paycheck at the ZPD, but this was a birthday check sent by her mother back home. She told them that she appreciates the cards and everything but she felt a little too old for money in a card but Bonnie Hopps can be very stubborn. Her dad reasoned that if she doesn't cash the check, then her mother will just be looking at the account like waiting for a pot to boil. Reluctantly, Judy conceded.

She deposited enough for an hour in the meter. A police officer legally was permitted to park wherever they wanted and didn't have to pay parking meters. But Judy didn't believe in any special treatment. She made a point to not race past red lights except in an emergency, refused handouts like a cup of coffee, and yes, pay the meter. Her rationale was that her badge symbolizes the important job she has but beyond that, she considers herself like anyone else in Zootopia. Judy's transparency, dedication and down-to-earth attitude made her well-liked in the ZPD. Even Chief Bogo admitted he liked her, and he supposedly doesn't like most things.

One mammal especially liked her. And he was dining alone for today.

Some young kits getting out of school ran past Judy who took a moment to wave at her. She smiled and returned the wave. Shaking her head, she reminisced about how she had to have been just as carefree growing up. Judy made a point to keep some childlike energy inside her and have fun once in a while. That reminded her, tonight should be bowling night.

 _"Maybe this time, I'll let Nick win"_ she mused.

But if he does that victory cheer of his, next time its on.

The massive building was very spacious, a mandate on all public buildings in Zootopia like banks and hospitals. Mammals, regardless of size, were to be able to conduct their official business or be taken care of with minimal difficulty. From a giraffe to a mouse, the bank is very accessible with its high ceilings and plenty of elbow room. There was a row of tellers, ready to assist their customers. Judy got in line at one of the middle windows. The far right was for especially big patrons like rhinos and elephants while the far left helped out your shrew or gerbil.

They originally tried to conjure up a teller that could handle small, medium and large mammals but that proved to be a logistical nightmare. Then you had the issue with lines. You may think a mammal is next but might miss a shorter fellow standing in front of the "next" customer. It would've been a jumbled jungle of a mess.

Judy looked around, taking in the hustle and bustle. Over here was an older aardvark getting lost at the ATM, which was infuriating the ten mammals behind him to no end. There was a husband and wife Koala who got approved for a loan to buy a house to start a family. Judy smiled to herself, wondering about doing just that someday. It's a pleasant thought but there may be a complication regarding that little fantasy.

"Next please!" shouted a fastidious-looking capybara wearing horn-rimmed glasses.

Not realizing how long her mind was wandering, Judy snapped out of it and approached the teller.

"Sorry," she chuckled. "I just need to deposit this check."

The capybara took the paper and turned it over and frowned.

"You didn't sign the back of this."

Judy winced, realizing she didn't endorse the check.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry," the teller condescendingly said. "Just keep the line moving, please."

 _"Well aren't you friendly, lady"_ Judy murmured under her breath.

She looked around the little ledge for a pen but there was none there.

"Excuse me?" Judy smiled. "Do you have a pen?"

"Nope," she replied.

"No?" Judy couldn't believe the answer. "Why?"

"Used to have pens up here but a mammal would always" she made air quotes " _accidentally forget_ to give it back."

The capybara pointed to a round black table with all kinds of pens and forms on it.

"If you need to sign anything or fill anything out... _beforehand_ " that was directed to Judy but seemed like it was meant for the rest of the line. "...you must do it over there."

Judy's ears lowered, "But that would mean I lose my place in line."

The teller threw up her paws, basically telling Judy that isn't her problem.

The bunny officer scrunched up her nose, took her check and stepped out of line.

"Maybe I should just deposit this through the ATM," she told herself. She then glanced over and the same old timer is still tying up the machine, only now the line has gotten considerably longer. "Maybe I should just switch banks," Judy sighed.

Suddenly, a gang of masked mammals burst into the main door, holding their guns high.

"NOBODY MOVE! THIS IS A ROBBERY!"

A wave of panic overcame the crowd, but a single shot fired at the ceiling made everyone drop to the floor.

"Nobody is scurrying anywhere, not until we're gone."

Hiding behind a wooden desk, her ears pointed to not let a single sound get past her, Judy swallowed slowly.

 _"I really need to switch banks."_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Glad to see some positive feedback on this one.  
**

 **As promised, the chapters from here on in will be longer.**

* * *

Nick Wilde sighed as he finished his second burrito sitting at his desk, just browsing aimlessly on the Internet. This solo lunch hour wasn't as fun as he had hoped it would be. The food was good but it wasn't the same without Judy's disapproving glare next to him. Nick smiled at how funny she looked whenever she gave that look. Some days he would purposefully turn up the off-color behavior just so he could see her scrunched up face and narrowed lavender eyes more often.

 _"Damn, that bunny sure grows on ya"_ he thought.

Judy really did make mundane things fun, even a boring stakeout or chained to their desks doing paperwork. Playing with his keyboard, Nick was appreciative of Judy coming before him in the ZPD. She told him that before they made the precinct smaller mammal friendly, it was a struggle. He almost squirted ginger ale from his nose when she regaled her gigantic task of simply turning on a computer, which was better fit for an elephant. Nick certainly felt little in the presence of the rhinos and hippos and big cats on duty. With Judy being at least a foot shorter than him, he couldn't imagine how intimidating it must have looked. He had to admire her in that regard, showing little fear even when the odds were stacked against her.

It inspired him to move out of his comfort zone and convince him he can do better things with his life. Nick, the former con artist, _did_ enjoy being a cop. He remembered growing up in a bad part of town, a good chunk of the time on his own due to his mother's work schedule. It got scary at times and when he would get done from school, little Nick oftentimes ran home for fear of the street gangs and other bad people. The ZPD rarely used to patrol that area in those days, so as Nick grew he figured if you couldn't beat them then it was safer to join them. But things have improved and nowadays there isn't a corner of Zootopia that isn't considered part of the ZPD's beat. That was what Bogo made abundantly clear when he was appointed as chief. Every mammal had the right to feel safe.

Nick used to be part of the problem, giving into his imposed stereotype as a trickster. But today, he was still a fox through and through but he can go to sleep at night knowing he is part of the solution.

And he owes all of that to Judy. His life wouldn't be the same had he not met her. And for the sake of the city, it was fortuitous that they crossed paths.

It wasn't just a nice partnership they had going, but Judy ended up being one of the closest friends Nick ever had. And he liked to think he was held in a similar regard in Judy's eyes. A bond that strong will happen when you've had as many near death experiences as they did during the night howler case alone. Being now especially trained, he was more fit to handle calamity like Judy. Since then they've had a fair share of close calls on the force and their friendship only grew deeper. When out in the field, there's a level of trust that you must have in your partner. Judy had that in spades.

He trusted her. And that was something Nick Wilde was very protective of; he didn't put his trust into just any mammal.

The vibration from his phone made him almost jump out of his chair. Nick scrambled trying to fish the cell out of his pocket. The blues ZPD issued were pretty tight and left little to the imagination.

Nick sighed as he finally had the phone in his paws and saw it was a message from Judy. He smirked, thinking it was her saying she was on her way back. Opening the screen to read the message, his eyes widened while his stomach dropped.

 **"BANK ROBBERY IN PROGRESS. 6 MAMMALS TOTAL; 4 LG, 2 SM. WEARING MASKS. GUNS AND SOME DUFFLE BAGS."**

Before Nick could frantically reply, a second message came immediately.

 **"NUMBER OF HOSTAGES UNCLEAR. SEND BACKUP."**

That was his worst fear. Judy was inside the bank.

Without a second's hesitation; Nick bounded to the lower levels of the ZPD where they kept all of their vehicles. Most of them were already gone since it was in the middle of the day, including the one Judy took which they shared. Nick eyed a spare standard police cruiser and jumped into the driver's seat. His paws scrambled in search for the keys, until he got the idea to jump up and open the visor which the keys dropped from.

He was about to put the key in the ignition when a familiar hoof seized them.

"What are you doing, Wilde?" bellowed the Chief.

Nick breathed heavy, his green eyes looking intensely at the towering cape buffalo. He had a look about him like he was a moment away from fighting those keys from his grasp.

"Judy's in trouble," he said. Nick rarely referred to her as "Officer Hopps."

Bogo sighed, showing Nick his phone. "I know."

"She texted you, too?"

"Hopps probably figured you'd do something crazy..." the Chief pointed to Nick in the car. "...like this."

Nick slammed his paws on the steering wheel, frustrated.

"Sorry, sir but my partner just told me she's in the middle of a bank robbery. I can't ignore that."

The Chief glowered, "We're not, Wilde! Hopps gave us an overview of the situation so we know what we're dealing with. There's protocol."

"We don't have time!" Nick pressed.

"You're right. So let's get going. Move over!"

Nick hopped to the passenger side while Bogo got into the driver's seat. He started the car and grabbed the radio.

"Attention all units!" he ordered. "We have a Code 20 in progress. Officer Hopps is at the scene. There are six suspects that we know about. There will be civilians, repeat there will be civilians!"

Nick leaned back, folding his arms.

"Don't beat yourself up, Wilde."

"What?" he asked.

The Chief gave him a look. "I know she's your partner but that doesn't mean blaming yourself for not being there when she was by herself."

"But..."

"No buts. She's a tough one; you know that better than most. Hopps can handle herself and she also knows when to call for help. And that's what she did. It's going to be a bad scene down there so she'll need the ZPD to have her back. What she doesn't need is some fox rushing in trying to be a hero."

Nick rolled his eyes and shook his head.

* * *

Judy had been paying rapt attention while remaining hunkered behind the desk. Luckily, there was a litany of pens and envelopes around her that spilled over from the panic. Judy was sketching notes to keep track of the suspects. Listening closely, she caught wind of a handful of names. They might be aliases but she couldn't take the chance and copied them down anyway.

All of the robbers were clad in black from head to toe, so their species was difficult. Judy noticed a lack of outstanding features like antlers or horns. That eliminated a few mammals. One of the two smaller ones, referred to as Carter, appears to be the brains of the operation. He is directing the larger mammals for crowd control. Judy peered around the desk, all of the patrons and employees were on the floor, paws and hooves on their heads. It didn't take them very long to round everyone up.

They were fairly organized.

"Will you keep an eye on him!" ordered the diminutive leader to one of the burly mammals, indicating to another similarly-built one. "He's really bugging me."

"Relax, Carter - Ted's been out of the clink for only a few days."

"Newsflash!" snarled the smaller one. "So have you and the big guy over there. And neither of you are nearly as twitchy as Ted."

The one Carter was talking to made eye contact with "the big guy" who just stood silently, holding his weapon.

"I understand," he nodded. "I'll make sure he isn't any trouble."

"You'd better, bozo" Carter pointed.

The leader jumped onto the desk that Judy was stationed behind. She pressed her back against it, hiding herself from his line of sight.

"Attention, mammals!" the leader shouted to the crowd. "This will take just a few minutes IF you all _cooperate_." He pointed to the other short masked robber who was holding an open sack. "First, I want you to dump your phones into this bag and do it quickly. Calling for help and photos are not going to make our job any easier; you understand."

The one holding the bag moved with great speed, Judy observed, gathering up all the cells from the mammals. They were ordered not to move, so the robber deftly picked everyone's pocket until he was confident that every mobile phone was acquired. He even relieved the security guard of his walkie-talkie. It didn't take more than five minutes when the dozens of devices were taken.

He _was_ quite fast.

 _"Have to keep an extra eye on that one,"_ Judy thought. She glanced down at her notes, now having four names out of six. The speedy one and the largest mammal of all were both still a mystery. That they didn't say much made them even more unsettling in their anonymity.

"Now you!" the leader pointed to two of the tellers, a pig and tigress. "Come with me and my buddy," he indicated to one that he called Gary. "We're making a pretty big withdrawal."

Carter bounded down and joined with Gary, holding their guns with one hand and empty bags with the other. They followed the employees back to where the vault was. The rest remained in the main area to stand guard.

* * *

Bogo was quickly approaching the bank, feeling the intensity of his newest recruit rising from the passenger seat.

"Almost there, Wilde" the chief matter-of-factly stated. "Holding it together."

"Trying."

Bogo sniffed while grabbing the radio.

"Attention all units approaching First Bank of Zootopia; cut off your sirens now. It will be a couple of blocks until we reach it. We don't want to scare a bunch of armed mammals in a building with _unarmed_ citizens."

Everyone copied in the affirmative, save for one car.

Officers Hayes and Welles, an elephant and hyena team, were taking an alternate route which took them through and underground tunnel, muffling the signal. So for that brief moment, the order from the chief didn't get through. They continued on their way, siren blaring.

* * *

The smaller masked mammal left in the lobby tilted his head, as if listening for something.

"COPS!" he shouted.

"Are you sure?" one of them questioned.

"I can hear them from a mile away!" he pointed. "CARTER! GARY! WE'VE GOT TROUBLE!"

The pair quickly handcuffed the tellers to the bank vault handle, and ran back to the front.

"What's going on?" demanded Carter.

The other mammal of almost equal height grabbed Carter's shoulder. "I heard sirens. No ambulance, no fire department. Its the ZPD."

Carter looked around, knowing that his friend's hearing was impeccable and he had no reason to make things up at a time like this. Sure enough, there came Zootopia's finest in about a dozen cars pulling up to the main doors.

"Gary, what the hell?!"

The tall, lankier of the group froze.

"What?"

Carter jumped onto Gary's torso like he was getting ready to rip his head off.

"You told me that you disabled the security cameras and alarms."

"But I _did_! I didn't screw up."

"Then how is the entire Z-freaking-PD knocking on our door, genius?"

That made Gary's blood boil more than anything. He hated when anyone questioned his intelligence such as saying things like "brilliant" or "genius" sarcastically.

"Listen, twerp!" Gary held his gun tightly but kept it pointed downward. "You gave me a job to do and I did it. Maybe one of these morons called for help!"

"How? First thing we did was get everybody's phones." he turned to his short counterpart. "Eddie?"

Judy now had a name for the other smaller mammal.

Eddie held up his bag full of cells "Right here. I got everyone."

"Well maybe there was somebody you missed," the biggest one said in a monotone but condescending voice.

"I never miss, _tiny_ " Eddie pointed.

"WILL YOU BOTH SHUT UP!"

Carter's echo boomed through the bank, the acoustics making this small animal's voice shake like a drum.

"We will find this out right now."

He jumps on top of an elephant's head, barrel of his gun pressed against his grey skin.

"SOMEBODY OUT THERE THINKS HE'S A HERO? SOME FOOL WHO THOUGHT HE COULD BE SNEAKY AND CALL 911?" Carter scanned the room looking for a reaction other than the wave of gasps. "Tell you what: if you don't come forward, I will _shoot_ this pachyderm. And if you still want to stay hidden, then I will begin picking off another mammal every five minutes. Go ahead, try me. I know I don't mind but I bet you don't want other animals' blood on your hands!"

"Stop!"

Carter turned and locked eyes with Judy, arms raised with her phone in hand.

"You?" he asked, surprised. He wasn't expecting a meek bunny of all things to derail his daylight robbery.

"Me," she gulped, stepping forward so her body was out from behind the desk.

It was then he saw her badge.

"Well this got interesting," he said.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Giving a special shout-out to all my current followers of this story:**

 **A big admirer of time, AnimeFan51, animmeloverr, Azawrath, Azraela's Fire, BlackCat0827, Brennie438, Combat Engineer, DragoLord19D, Dylan734, Hazel The Rabbit, hollymayjune, hollymayjune2, Irual, John Johnson42, kiyomos, livelovelaughbwierd, NellieJ2011, Panjetarkan, Readerfever, szucsf, TheDevilsOneAndOnlyChild, and TortillasOrBust**

 **I really appreciate all of the support you've been giving me. And I really want to hear from more of you; send me a comment or PM anytime.**

 **Cheers!**

 **;-)**

* * *

Eddie secured the rabbit officer in their midst.

"Hello, beautiful..." mused the shorter masked mammal, who upon getting close to Judy had at least six inches over her. "Cute little bunny _and_ a cop to boot. Yeah, yeah, I heard about you in the news." He then began tying up her paws behind her back.

"Don't call me cute," Judy protested with a grunt. Despite being compliant, he was still rough.

"Relax, love" Eddie whispered into her ear. "I'm sure I'm hardly the first to say so."

Normally Judy would blush at such words. Considering the source, his compliments felt disgusting.

"It's over! We're done!" one of the robbers cried, pulling off his mask in a panic revealing a frantic-looking grizzly.

"Put your mask back on, moron!" growled Carter. He then turned his attention to Rick. "What did I tell you about Ted? He's cracking!"

The aforementioned Ted was clearly sweating, making circles around the crowd whilst brandishing his gun. Mammals were screaming as his unsteady paws pointed at them. Carter and the others kept their eyes on him, only paying peripheral attention to the hostages.

"Ted!" called out Rick. "Look at me!"

The grizzly locked eyes with his partner, still shaking like a leaf.

"Y-y-y-y-esss...R-r-r-r-rick,,,?"

Rick firmly put his paw on Ted's shoulder.

"Listen to me, brother. I've been patient with everything up to this point. But now is NOT the time to lose your head. You have to keep it together."

"I don't think I can, Rick" Ted insisted. "I...I can't do this."

In the corner of the nervous grizzly's vision, a ram security guard accidentally knocked over a sign. This made Ted jump and without hesitation, he fired in the general direction. Unfortunately, he was able to nail his "threat." Now the woolen guard was laying there motionless, a red pool of blood forming underneath him.

"Aw, shit!" muttered Gary, looking desperately at his old friend, Carter whose face had fallen.

"WHAT. DID. YOU. DO?"

Ted threw his weapon onto the floor, turning to Carter.

"Carter, I'm so sorry..." the grizzly pleaded.

"CHECK HIM!" Carter ordered Eddie.

He nodded and handed over Judy to one of his larger counterparts to keep an eye on their cop. Once that was settled, Eddie bounded over to the shot ram. His small hands felt around the larger mammal's neck very carefully. For what felt like the longest minute, Eddie looked up and shook his head.

"Happy now?" Carter cocked his weapon and aimed it at Ted. "Now we have a body! Its already a friggin mess with hostages but now we're murderers."

Ted looked scared to death. He practically jumped when the boom of the loudspeaker came from outside.

"THIS IS CHIEF BOGO OF THE ZPD!" came from outside.

The cape buffalo was positioned behind his car door with Nick climbing onto the vehicle's roof to catch a better look.

"WE'VE HEARD A SHOT FIRED FROM INSIDE. IS ANYBODY HURT?"

Carter sniffed and cracked the front door slightly so he could reply.

"Security guard down. That's all."

Bogo paused, switching to a more agreeable tone to diffuse the situation.

"Well, you need to allow us to send paramedics to tend to the mammal."

"Don't trouble yourselves," Carter spat. "He's gone."

A shocked chief looked around at his fellow officers. Nick's eyed widened at the revelation, trembling on how trigger happy those criminals inside could be to a mammal in uniform. Judy wasn't safe in there and surely no one else would be.

"Chief...?"

Bogo stared at the red fox, his mind racing about what to do to keep things under control; whether it be the armed robbers inside or the on edge rookie just inches from his face.

Shifting his focus back to the bank, Bogo replied "Listen, we don't want anyone else hurt. If you give yourselves up, it can end now."

"Generous, but no" retorted Carter before shutting the door and locking it.

The chief then put down the bullhorn microphone and grabbed his regular radio.

"Cecil? Got anything yet?"

Cecil was a Zebra with a headset on. This is connected to a special satellite dish designed to hear sounds through walls.

"Cecil?"

"I'm here, boss." he replied.

"Did you _get anything_?"

They realized fairly quickly that the security system had been disabled, so no eyes into the building. But with technology, they could at least have ears. Its the best they can do since their officer with the keenest of hearing is trapped inside the crime scene.

"I did pick up snippets of conversation," Cecil said. "These raised voices didn't seem like panicked screams. They have to be the perpetrators, not the civilians."

"Any names?" Bogo queried.

"I've noticed a few. Looks like five, but that might not necessarily be everyone."

Bogo sighed, he hated flying blind. Whether it was not having a visual or a handle on the number of bad guys to apprehend.

"Get on the horn with Clawhauser and see what he can dig up."

* * *

"So what's the plan?" Gary asked Carter.

" _Which_ plan, you mean."

The tall robber titled his head at his leader.

"You KNOW me!" Carter sighed. "I never go ahead with a job without an alternate or several." He then turned his attention to Judy. "YOU! Let's talk. Alone."

The big mammal relinquished the cop and Carter shoved her into one of the nearby offices normally used by loan officers. Fortunately, this space was furnished to accommodate animals of their stature.

Carter situated himself on the big chair of whoever used this office.

"Sit."

Judy just stood there.

"I said sit down," Carter insisted.

"I'd rather stand," Judy unflinchingly replied. She wasn't about to be intimidated by a gang of thugs or their impetuous boss. "Besides..." Judy gestured to her tightly-bound wrists. "Getting up would be difficult."

Carter shrugged, though unbeknownst to Judy because of the mask, he was grinning.

"You know, I like you..." he leaned in to better see her badge. "Officer Hopps."

Judy narrowed her lavender eyes. " _Lieutenant_ , if you don't mind."

Under average circumstances, she rarely would correct someone about her rank. But this guy was not going to get anything over her if she had any say about it.

Carter just snorted, playing with a miniature guillotine on the desk. It would drop a little metal spike on top of a sloped bottom and whatever side it ultimately landed on would read "Yes" or "No." It was a dumb little bobble that office supply stores give away but Carter was mildly amused by it.

"Sorry, Lieutenant."

"What do you want?" Judy sighed, annoyed with how he was toying with her.

"Isn't it obvious?" Carter quipped.

Judy gave him a look.

"Oh, I see, with _you_." He got up and started pacing around. "See here's my problem. I was originally going to walk in here, get my money and leave. Then you came along and decided to throw a wrench into my plan. But you have a golden opportunity to make up for this by helping me and my cohorts escape."

"And why would I help you?"

Carter got in real close.

"Because I will level this bank and kill every mammal inside."

Her ears drooped, fearful of all those innocent lives.

One of Carter's talents, being a sociopath, was finding out others weaknesses and knowing how to break them down. In Judy's case, she struck him as the greatest prize of all: the empathetic, because they were the opposite of what he was. Threatening her life would be useless; she would be the type to sacrifice herself for the sake of others.

"Do I have your attention now, _Lieutenant_?"

* * *

Nick's heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest.

He couldn't stand waiting on the sidelines, but he was hard-pressed for a plan.

Not having an idea of what was going on inside forced his mind to fill in the gaps. And it never went to a good place. Flashes of a motionless Judy on the floor haunted his imagination. He tried to shake it off but the image wouldn't leave. It wasn't impossible. What if the mammals inside lied about the dead guard? Maybe it was Judy who got caught in the crossfire and they feared police retribution.

She could be hurt. Or worse.

Nick didn't get scared too often anymore but for the most part, there was a severe deficit of someone to care enough about. He remembered Bogo's words about not blaming himself for what happened. But that logic wasn't enough to absolve himself of guilt.

"Damn! I need to do something!" he growled to himself.

Then a light bulb went off in his head. It was perfect; he would have an active part in ending this and confirmation of what's going on in that bank.

"Chief!"

Bogo turned to the red fox, expecting more insanity on top of all that had went down so far.

"What do you want, Wilde?"

"Sir, the robbers aren't leaving anytime soon so now its become a hostage situation..."

"I know that already," Bogo interrupted. "What's you point?"

"You need someone to talk these mammals down so nobody else gets hurt."

Bogo massaged his forehead.

"Problem with that, Wilde, is that our negotiator is on vacation."

"That's some lousy timing...sir" Nick furrowed his brow, doing his best to show his boss that he was maintaining his cool. It was the only way Bogo was going to even consider what he was about to propose. "I'll do it."

"This isn't a time for jokes," Bogo sighed.

"Do I look like I'm kidding, sir?"

The red fox stood as tall as he could when standing before his towering superior.

"And what makes you think you are capable of negotiating a scene like this? Do you have a masters in psychology?"

Nick gritted his teeth.

"No, Chief. But talking other mammals into things was what I used to do for a living."

Bogo had only a fleeting understanding of his officer's less than honorable past life, and he admitted to Judy and Nick that the less he knew the better. But one of the details that came to his attention in passing was that Judy and Mr. Big were among those deceived. As much as he hated to admit it, Nicholas P. Wilde had the gift of gab and was smarter than he looked.

It's a desperate situation. And it appears the insane ideas have come at last.

"I must have my head examined...but...fine."

"Thank you," Nick nodded.

"Don't thank me, yet Wilde! You will have an ear piece at ALL times. I will be in communication with you; do not say _anything_ that I haven't signed off on. You may be the mouth but don't forget that I'm in charge here. Understood?"

Nick looked at the bank which looked like a fortress from where he was.

"Deal."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay, its been another rough week but luckily I've been maintaining a steady update schedule.**

 **I should take time off to relax, but I actually get more stressed when I haven't written anything lately.**

 **So, anyway, please leave comments and enjoy!**

 **;-)**

* * *

Clawhauser was very nervous as he pounded the keys to his computer. The updates from the standoff at the bank was coming back to him in a peace meal fashion but every minor detail assisted in narrowing his search. He was so immersed in sifting through the system that his fresh box of donuts that usually sat on his desk in the afternoon remained there untouched.

The cheetah breathed a sigh of relief when he feels he made a big break in identifying half of the suspects. Looking into felon mammals picked up for robbery, he landed on a raccoon named Carter. No known last name to speak of and for all he knew, "Carter" was a street name. He lacked any formal I.D. so this was what he had to go on. However, Clawhauser knew he was on to something when he looked up Carter's known accomplices. There was Gary K. Wolf, a former security system employee turned burglar (kind of ironic, he thought) and his other partner was a pyromaniac/bomber named Eddie O'Hare.

Carter and his cohorts for the longest time avoided the ZPD because newspapers erroneously referred to them as "The Cat Burglars." Apparently, there wasn't a feline among them. While arrested more than once, none of them had ever seen inside a prison cell. The slippery trio always managed to give their arresting officers the slip on the way to arraignment.

Those three related criminals and the names heard from inside the bank could NOT be a coincidence. But Clawhauser still was lost on the other three mammals. All he had was the name "Ted" but it yielded a litany of possible suspects. It was then a name that came across garbled at first that was eventually clarified as "Rick" that Clawhauser found more possible leads. Ted and Rick Russell were two grizzly brothers who got picked up for grand theft auto six months ago. They were convicted and sent to Zootopia Maximum Security Prison located on the skids of Sahara Square. Just last week a riot broke out and a handful of mammals were not accounted for when it was sorted out. Two of them were the brothers.

There was also a third inmate that went missing in the chaos.

James Kerchak, a silverback with an extremely violent sheet on him, was also apparently in the wind. Clawhauser felt his stomach drop when he read through the gorilla's past crimes. Whatever appetite he had before was dormant now. He picked up the phone and contacted the prison.

"Yes, hello?" the cheetah said in his usual unsure phone voice. "Is this the warden?"

"Yes, this is Harold Jumbeaux" replied the well-dressed elephant. "How can I help the mammals in blue?"

"We currently have a situation in progress and trying to assess the suspects."

There was a long pause.

"It's the bank robbery, isn't it?" asked Jumbeaux.

"That's right," replied Clawhauser. "How'd you guess?"

The elephant turned to the small TV on his desk.

"It's all over the news," he sighed. "Can't imagine anything else occupying Chief Bogo's attention."

Clawhauser nodded to himself.

"I wonder if you can help me with some information on an escaped convict."

"Yes," the heaviness in his voice was apparent, mostly out of embarrassment. Harold Jumbeaux prided himself on have an impregnable jail but last week's riot was beyond anything they could conceive of. Now they've beefed up on their guards and automated dividers to keep the spread of free prisoners under control. But he knew there were loose ends out there and with the kind of riffraff he has in his prison; it would only be a matter of time when they would reappear and do something illegal.

And that time has come it seems.

"Who?"

"For starters, Ted and Rick Russell."

"Ah, yes" Jumbeaux mused out loud. There was the sound of him riffling through file folders. "Yes, here we go. Rick Russell, the oldest brother. From what we've found appears to be the mastermind between the two. Ted definitely lacked that cold, confident precision to carry out an armed robbery. I'm genuinely shocked he made it this far without being eaten alive. Then again, he had an intimidating brother."

Clawhauser was writing all this down. He would let Bogo know that one would probably be willing to talk while the other might turn tail and run. He was avoiding the next name, frightened of the answers. But Clawhauser needed to be sure of what his friends out there was dealing with.

"I have one more right now."

"I'm all ears," Jumbeaux chuckled.

"Sorry?"

He shook his head "Nothing, officer. It's an elephant joke."

"Oh I see," Clawhauser said. "What can you tell me about James Kerchak?"

The other end stayed silent for so long that Clawhauser thought the call dropped.

"Uh...hi? Hello?"

"I'm here, sorry." Jumbeaux seemed out of sorts. "Are you certain that it's him?"

The cheetah shrugged "That's what I'm trying to find out, sir."

"Some guards saw Kerchak associating with Rick Russell here and there. It might not surprise me that they escaped together."

That's what Clawhauser was afraid of.

"What can you tell me about him personally?"

"I've encountered him once or twice. But I'll never forget it. He was monolithic; just sat there quiet, like he was waiting for something. I remember shortly after meeting up with him, my wrist watch suddenly stopped dead. I looked up and Kerchak just sat there only now he made the faintest smirk."

That made the dispatcher's blood run cold. But he had to put his fears aside and let Jumbeaux give him more about this wild mammal. After all, Judy Hopps, his dear friend, was among those trapped inside with him.

* * *

Judy huffed and stood up despite her restraints.

"Excuse me?"

Carter and company barely acknowledged her.

"Hey! Carter!"

Officer Hopps hadn't referred to him by name before so it briefly startled him.

"Eh, what?" then he groaned. "What do you want, Lieutenant Fuzzball?"

"Since we're clearly not leaving this building anytime soon and its been a couple hours already; maybe you should start escorting everyone in groups to the...um...facilities."

Carter imagined the sight of an entire lobby of mammals (of varying sizes) losing control of their bladders and bowels. On top of everything else that had gone wrong today, that would not make things better.

"Alright, fine" the ringleader crossed his arms. "Rick! You lead the boys to the bathroom. And Ted?"

Ted flinched but stood to receive orders.

"Sir? I mean, Carter?"

"Since you're the least male of the group, you can escort the ladies to their lavatory."

Judy shot him a glare "That's not nice!"

"Not nice? **_Not nice?_** In the first place, if you haven't figured out yet from the stealing, and the guns; I'm kind of an asshole. Second, what business is it of yours? Do you have any idea what it's like to have your plans get unraveled by a useless peon like Ted here?"

"Okay, no more picking on Ted, Carter."

He was genuinely shocked when the older grizzly stood his ground.

"Just get these mammals to the crapper, already!"

Rick's paw held his gun tightly but he held back from raising it up to Carter's line of sight. Without saying anything else, Rick started rounding up patrons to the restroom with Ted helping out. They started with a group of five at a time, per bathroom.

"Just remember, there are no windows and we will be enforcing a strict five minute time limit. If your group doesn't finish their business in five, then its big trouble for you."

The hostages heard but didn't acknowledge the threat.

Carter turned back to Judy.

"See, even _I_ can be a nice guy."

Judy rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah, five whole minutes."

"Five minutes is plenty of time for any mammal. Besides, we're all big, grown-ups, aren't we? Ever heard of holding it in?"

"Really?" Judy sneered. "You haven't had the need to go?"

"Not anymore," he grinned, revealing from underneath the desk a silver decanter with flowers still in it. "These things do come in handy."

Judy cringed at the sound of a zipper closing.

"That's disgusting."

"What?" he asked, brandishing the thin vase. "The roses don't seem to mind."

* * *

"You ready to do this, Wilde?"

The red fox looked up at his superior, apprehensive but tried not to show it.

"Any advice from an old pro?"

Bogo raised a brow " _Old?_ "

"Sorry, Chief" he winced. "I didn't mean..."

"It's fine, Wilde. I was just busting your small berries."

"Wait, _small_?"

Bogo smirked. "As a matter of fact, yes. You need to establish trust with these mammals. All they know is sirens and tazers and SWAT gear. What catches them off guard is when you discard all of that and appeal to their basic humanity. You'd be surprised, Wilde. Believe me. The old saying goes you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar."

Nick nodded, beginning to understand. It wasn't just a simple hustle. These guys have no reason to trust the police so to win them over and convince them to cooperate will be a challenge. Perhaps it was his own hubris taking over, but Nick was eager to open the lines of communication immediately.

"Alright, sir. Let's do this."

"CHIEF! CHIEF!"

The cape buffalo turned around and saw his anxious aide running up to him with his phone.

"Chief! Clawhauser was trying to reach you, sir!"

Bogo checked his phone and cursed himself for not charging it. It was completely dead.

"What has he got?"

"About 95% sure of who each of the suspects are in the bank, sir."

He held out his hoof "Let me see."

* * *

Over in the next office over, the phone rang.

"Really?" huffed Carter at Gary.

"What? Oh don't even dare...I cut the phone lines."

"Th-th-that's a s-s-s-seperate ph-ph-ph-phone l-l-l-ine." one of the employees stammered.

Carter rolled his eyes and hopped off his chair and bounded to the next office to answer the phone.

"What do you want?"

"Is this Carter?" asked a male voice.

"You're talkin' to him" he replied, jumping onto the chair behind the desk. "And who are you?"

"Call me Nick. I'm an officer of the ZPD."

Carter shook his head, "You're starting to lose me, _officer_."

"Don't hang up, please. I want to help you."

"Why don't you help me by telling me how you know my name?"

Nick took a deep breath before responding.

"We've heard it mentioned a few times. We know that you're the formerly named "Cat Burglar" but you're not a cat, are you?

Carter pulled off his mask, revealing his furry face. He was indeed a raccoon.

"And what else do you know?"

Nick replied "I also know that with you are Gary Wolf, Eddie O'Hare, and the Brothers Russell. And I believe the big one who doesn't say much is James Kerchak."

The raccoon's eyes widened and he scanned his accomplices.

"Well, boys" he sneered. "I guess we're out."

Slowly, the others began following suit with Carter and removing their respective masks. They collectively felt relief. Those masks were getting to hot and starting to constrict air for breathing.

Judy's guesswork was accurate. There was a timber wolf, a pair of grizzly bears, a gorilla, the leader raccoon...

But the other one, the smarmy one named Eddie, unfurled his disguise to reveal an antelope jackrabbit. Now Judy understood his "cute" comment from earlier and it took on a whole other meaning that made her feel uneasy. Especially after the look he was giving her.

"You have my full attention, Nicholas."

* * *

 **A/N: I think you can trace the meanings of the last names of the robbers. Let me know through PM if you've figured out why I named the brothers Russell.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here comes Chapter 5 and things are really heating up now.**

 **Please leave comments!**

* * *

"What do you want, Carter?" asked Nick over the phone.

The raccoon slammed his paw down on the desk.

" _What is with you cops?!_ Is there no intelligence test for the ZPD? It's a bank, I have a gun. **_Hello?_** "

Nick dodged the insult and answered in measured tones, keeping his cool.

"I just meant what can we do to make this situation stable. You mammals want out, we want in. And we both don't want anyone else getting hurt."

Carter was trying to read this cop. He was either very sincere or a very talented actor.

"I didn't..." the raccoon sighed. "I just...I didn't mean for the ram to get plugged." He made eye contact with Ted as he continued to talk to Nick. "It was an accident; a lapse in judgment from a very weak-minded mammal."

"Carter," Nick said. "Maybe if we could get the guard to an ambulance, he might..."

"NO! Nobody comes in! Besides, he's already gone."

"Carter..."

"I said stay out!"

* * *

Nick held the receiver and looked at Bogo with his ears down.

"Keep going, Wilde" the chief insisted. "This part takes a little time. These mammals are in an intense situation and you're trying to form a bond of trust with a perfect stranger. Nobody said it would be easy."

 _"He's right,"_ Nick thought. _"This isn't selling a Popsicle on a hot day. I'm trying to convince armed criminals to lower their weapons and surrender to a larger, more threatening cadre of animals with guns."_

He nodded at his superior and continued negotiating.

* * *

"Carter? Carter, you there?"

A moment of silence before the raccoon responded "Yeah, I'm here. Nick, right?"

"That's what they call me," Nick replied, trying to bring levity to the situation.

Carter peered through the horizontal blinds by the front windows.

"Where are you? You guys can see me, so I want to see you" he insisted.

* * *

Nick climbed on top of the nearest police cruiser and stood on the hood, waving his free paw.

"Okay, you see a buffalo?"

"Uh-huh" replied Carter.

"Alright, that's the chief FYI. I'm to the left of the big guy."

* * *

Carter's eyes widened. It was getting dark so the mammal was starting to rely on his night vision to see clearer. The flashing lights made it difficult.

"Do you see me?"

"That's supposed to be you waving?" asked Carter.

Nick then said "Can I stop waving now? My arm's getting bored."

"You're a fox?"

"Can't put anything past you, ace."

Carter smirked. Now he was beginning to understand why this particular officer had all this moxie.

"First a rabbit, now a fox. The ZPD is really diversifying these days" he chortled.

"You should talk," Nick wryly commented.

Carter looked back at the hostages, being held at gunpoint by his own crew.

"Touche," the raccoon said.

"You seem like a nice guy, Carter. In spite of the whole armed robbery thing."

"I'm flattered," Carter dryly replied.

"No, seriously. We're not that different."

"Bullshit!"

A male bovine snorted at the expletive. Carter rolled his eyes and said "Not _you_!"

The raccoon went back into the office, this time shutting the door.

"Listen, Nick, we're nothing alike. I'm not exactly what you would call a predator."

Nick knew he had to get personal with the ringleader.

"I know what its like to have others look at you funny."

"Funny, how?" Carter asked.

"Do you know how many times a day mammals do a double-take when they see a fox cop? It's like they can't believe what they're seeing. Like it's wrong somehow."

Carter couldn't disparage that. After all, he made that prejudgment just a minute ago.

"And believe me," Nick continued. "To this day, I'm still trying to earn the trust and respect of some of my fellow officers."

Carter's claws tapped on the desk, making a clacking sound.

"Must have been rough," he told Nick. His voice was devoid of any sarcasm. It was genuine.

Nick said "Bet it was rough for you, too. You also grew up on the streets, didn't you?"

"How'd you know that?"

"I can sense it. Let's just say I wasn't always the upstanding citizen you see before you."

"Your dad leave?" Carter asked.

The question cut through Nick like a knife but he attempted to stay steady for everyone's sake.

Nick cleared his throat. "Yeah. When I was a kit, really young."

"Mine was never in the picture."

"But I was lucky with mom. She did her best."

Carter huffed "Ma died. Think I was about nine or ten. Been by myself ever since."

Nick allowed a moment of quiet to one, choose his words and two, give what he heard the weight it deserved. He knew Carter would unconsciously appreciate the sentiment.

"Sorry to hear that," the fox said. "Mine did when I was thirteen. But by then I already knew my way around Zootopia. I could take care of myself. You were a lot younger, yeah?"

Carter felt tears forming in his eyes but spun around in his chair so nobody could see. So many sleepless nights, not know if someone was going to mug him or kill him.

"You there, buddy?" Nick called out.

He hesitated before answering, not wanting to let anyone know he was crying. He sniffed hard, sucked it up and tried to find his composure.

"I'm here, copper. So you've been there, so what?"

"I know what its like to try and apply for a job and nobody would take you because of what you were. Mammals saw me and all they saw was a trickster and a liar. I used to be friends with a raccoon named Terrence. Any time somebody in the neighborhood got robbed, they looked at him. Because, you know, they're all bandits, right?"

That hit Carter hard.

"Whatever happened to him?"

"He eventually landed a job working for one of those tabloid news groups. Mostly raccoons. After all, Carter, they _all_ dig around in others' garbage cans, don't they?"

Nick stayed silent for a few seconds, letting his words sink in. That was the problem with prejudice at such a young age; it makes you grow up constantly selling yourself short.

"Carter, you're a smart mammal. But you've been dealt a shitty hand. And since nobody would give you a chance, you decided screw it and turn to crime. Walking the streets, seeing the different stores and apartments; you knew when mammals wouldn't be home or at work. You don't like dealing with others so you only steal when there's nobody else around. Then you eventually make a couple of friends who turn into partners; an ex security system installer and an explosives expert. And the three of you were unstoppable."

The raccoon sniffed at the fox's hubris. That didn't change the fact that he was spot on. He was used to reading others, not the reverse.

"But something changed, didn't it? Something made you want to get out of the game. Maybe even, go legit? But starting a new life takes money and you needed a lot of it quickly. So, why not a bank, right? Seems simple enough but this wasn't a nighttime burglary. You had regular business hours, dealing with a crowd, the whole deal. So, you acquired some muscle for your plight to help with the crowd control."

 _"Sly fox,"_ Carter thought.

Nick asked, "Am I in the ballpark?"

"I don't want to hurt anybody. I've never killed before but don't try me, Nick. If I'm put into a situation whether its me or them..."

"Wait, we don't want that, okay?" Nick quickly said. "What can I get for you?"

Carter mulled it over, stroking his whiskers.

"Alright."

* * *

Nick looked over at Chief Bogo like a deer in headlights.

"What did he ask for, Wilde?" he whispered.

"Oh, nothing - just a copter."

He gave Nick a look "I'm sorry?"

"They asked for a helicopter," he sheepishly grinned.

Bogo folded his arms "And when would they require this _extravagant_ demand?"

"Um..." Nick gave the one moment gesture while he listened. "An hour?"

The chief sighed, massaging his temples.

"Sorry, boss."

"Don't be, Wilde. You did your best. This was inevitable."

"What do we do now?" Nick asked.

"Call the mayor," Bogo replied, taking Nick's phone. "I am not looking forward to this conversation."

* * *

Carter hung up the phone just when Gary came in.

"How we lookin'?"

The raccoon got down and signaled for the timber wolf to follow him.

"I already told them about the chopper."

Gary chuckled, "You think they'll really do it?"

Carter shrugged.

"Where's Eddie?"

Gary pointed to the jackrabbit who was digging through his bag.

"Yo!" Carter shouted. Eddie looked up. "You set up?"

"Oh, yeah" he smiled widely. "Phase One is go."

Carter silently nodded. He then pointed to Ted and James.

"You two...go into the safe and fill up the bags. Pronto."

The bear and gorilla made their way to the back with empty black bags in hand.

"Let me see the plans," Carter instructed Gary.

The tall mammal took out a rolled up paper and placed it on a desk where he unfurled it. Carter hopped up where he could see better. It was a blueprint of the bank that they "borrowed" from the building's architect.

"Now where are these tunnels?"

"Right here," Gary pointed. "Typical beavers."

Underground access ports to buildings were not uncommon, given the species of most construction workers. The ones beneath the bank proved to be invaluable because they could discreetly import large quantities of money while the armored van parked at the front served as a decoy. Having learned about this juicy detail, Carter and his cohorts knew these catacombs would be plenty big enough for them.

The way Gary saw the layout of the building, once Phase One went underway; the hostages inside and police outside would be too confused from the chaos. Then they would slip away in secret with the loot, which would follow up with Phase Two.

Once the two large mammals came back, with money in paw, the six would engage and make their exit.

* * *

While James and Ted filled their shopping bags with both arms, Carter and Gary plotted their route, and Rick kept a vigilant eye on the crowd; Eddie was busy with his own business.

And he wasn't alone.

Judy was seated on the floor across from Eddie, clearly engrossed in what he was doing. That was just fine with her. Let him stay distracted; it bought the time she required to work that paperclip secreted up her sleeve. Even with her bound wrists, Judy's paws could bend the small object into something she can use to pick the locks of her handcuffs.

"You cops think you're pretty smart, eh?"

Judy didn't answer. She was almost there.

O'Hare brandished a small device in his hand. Her heart sank because she knew what it had to be.

"Let's see them outsmart _this_ ," he sneered.

"Nooooooooo!"

To the larger hare's surprise, the female leapt toward him. She scratched his cheek, making him grunt in pain, which she followed up with a hearty kick in his back. That sent the device in his hand flying until landing across the floor.

They both saw it land and went for it.

Eddie pushed her head down and scrambled toward the little black box that resembled a remote.

"Not very smart, officer" he taunted. "Wouldn't want to start the fireworks off early, do you?"

That clinched it. Judy's suspicions were confirmed that thing was a detonator of some kind. She cursed herself for not discovering that sooner; she could have alerted Bogo to have the ZPD Bomb Squad on the scene.

For fear of so many mammals getting hurt or worse; Judy in a blind fury found her on Eddie's back, punching him in the kidneys. That elicited more derisive sounds from the jackrabbit but weren't enough to immobilize him. She then went for the ears, which for a rabbit (even in a street fight) was low. The matter of life and death forced the naive farm girl turned straight-laced cop to fight dirty.

Eddie rolled on his back, sending Judy landing beside him. He visibly winced, touching his sore ears.

His eyes turned to her and he smirked.

"You know, love, it feels kind of good when _you_ tug on my ears."

Judy's eyes narrowed.

"You disgust me."

"And you're beginning to bore me."

A shock ripped through her body and then everything went dark.

Eddie switched off the taser he "acquired" from Officer Hopps' belt. He then pocketed the weapon, picked up his detonator and draped the unconscious Judy over his shoulder.

"It's okay, love. We're going on a trip."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So sorry this update took forever. Week after week, work's been bringing me down. But I hope you're still with me.**

 **Nice to see new readers adding me and this story to their favorites. Means the world to me.**

 **And, as always, please leave comments and let me know how you like it.**

 **;-)**

* * *

"What the hell happened?" asked Carter

Eddie smirked and threw the limp rabbit to the floor.

"Feisty little one," he grunted. "Managed to get out of her restraints, so I gave her a little shock treatment." Eddie then showed the taser, still warm from recently being used.

"Doesn't matter," the raccoon sighed. "By the time she comes to, we'll be long gone. Speaking of which, are you ready?"

The jackrabbit brandished the detonator.

"They don't call me Ready-Steady-Eddie for nil."

The pair saw the completely stuffed large bags full of cash. There had to be at least $100 million in there easy.

Carter signaled to Rick the grizzly to join them, abandoning the hostages.

"Let's do this thing and go."

* * *

Prior to the armed siege of the bank, Eddie had strategically placed explosives around the building's parameter. They were hidden in mundane things like garbage cans, mailboxes, and even a newspaper dispenser. And with Gary's aid, the surrounding security cameras outside the bank weren't functioning properly, so he was able to operate without the ZPD being the wiser.

The bank manager didn't report the cameras because Gary rigged the video feed to play the previous morning's daytime footage. As far as he was concerned, they were working properly. Only a keen eye would have picked up on minor details like the patrons outside the bank not matching whom was walking inside.

Little did Chief Bogo, Nick and the rest of the ZPD on the scene know; they were standing in the middle of ground zero.

"Carter," called Nick on the phone.

No answer.

"Carter please. Answer!"

"Still nothing?" Bogo asked.

The red fox shook his head, ears noticeably dipped in concern. He still had no confirmation on Judy's status and it killed him not knowing.

"I don't like this" the cape buffalo said. "They're up to something, I can feel it."

"You'd think they would make a brea-"

 _ **BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM**_

A cacophonous sound followed immediately by billowing smoke and flying glass sent the police and civilian onlookers off their hooves and paws. The entire city block was enveloped in black and grey, making it impossible to see and breathe. Mammals blessed with an advanced sense of smell was overcome with a burning stench. And nearly everyone around was momentarily deafened by the explosion. It wouldn't be until later that it was discovered that it was actually about half a dozen explosions detonated in unison.

The goal was to create the most chaos and confusion. It certainly succeeded.

Winds were low this day, so the oppressive smoke had to disperse on its own. Which meant that the ZPD had to move quickly whilst flying blind.

Bogo coughed furiously, trying to get his word out to his mammals. He hoped their ear pieces were still functioning.

"Officers," he felt like he was going to hack up a lung. "Put on your goggles. Switch to thermal mode."

The SWAT team had these standard and they were given to beat cops in response to a special emergency like this just in case. These night vision goggles were invaluable for maneuvers in the dark, but that wasn't their only function. They were also equipped with a "thermal" mode which could detect heat in situations where not enough contrast exists to discern light (i.e. fog, smoke). Normal night vision was useless in the fallout of an explosion but thermal vision could aid the ZPD in finding mammals inside and pulling them to safety.

The Chief put on his own pair, immediately starting to scan the area around him. The more warm bodies he could see standing, or helping others, or at least moving made his worry go down a little bit. He looked down and saw the unmistakable diminutive heat signature of a fox by his side.

 _"Wilde accounted for,"_ he thought.

"Wilde," Bogo coughed. "Can you hear me?"

He could tell Nick was holding his ears, overcome by the sound of the blast, not to mention his sense of smell drowning in the smoke. What's more, he wasn't equipped with goggles so he was still covering his eyes, which were likely stinging from all the dust and other debris kicked up by the blast.

The larger mammal used his body to shield the fox, allowing him a small space to get his bearings. Slowly, Nick was no longer covering his eyes but still squinting, while stretching his arms out, frantically feeling around for something.

"Wilde, calm down and stay put. There's smoke and debris everywhere. It will take time until we can all breathe right again."

Suddenly, Bogo had an idea and picked up his officer and placed him inside the cruiser.

"Stay in here until the dust settles, no ands, ifs or buts."

And with that, the chief slammed the door shut.

Coughing like mad, Nick was at first irritated by being "handled." It was an unspoken rule that larger mammals respect a smaller mammal's personal space and not attempt to pick them up unless given permission. But as the air immediately around him was much more tolerable, the fox was increasingly grateful for the quick thinking of his superior. Still unable to see, he felt around the vehicle and in the middle console found a bottled water. He didn't care at the moment but fortunately, the cracking of the plastic cap proved it was an unopened (and thus unused) water.

He tilted his head sideways, holding the bottle above him and allowed the cool liquid flush out his eyes. He squinted tightly, shaking his head furiously. The tears upon his face were indiscernible from the droplets of water. Nick shimmied up the headrest to get a good look at his face from the rear view mirror. His eyes were bloodshot and his red fur a dark grey mess, but at least his sight was better that he could make out his ugly reflection.

The windows surrounding him was another matter. They must have been completely coated with soot.

Eyeing the dashboard controls, Nick found the switch for the wipers. At least he could clear out the gunk from the windshield so he can get a handle on the situation. The long black wipers pushed away at the dirt and ashes with some difficulty at first but once the first pass was successful, they swayed back and forth with more ease.

Now Nick could finally see outside the bank since the explosion.

And it was bad.

Papers (presumably equal parts the mailboxes and from the bank itself) fell upon the scene like strange snow. It added a kind of whimsy to the horror which made it even more unsettling. A couple of police cars were on their sides, likely from barricading the likes of Higgins or Rhinowitz. Nick was confident that his larger fellow officers managed to survive.

Speaking of which, several of the ZPD were moving civilians in and out of the giant hole in the wall of the bank. Many looked okay, albeit many of them were holding their heads. That blast would make any mammals' ears ring or at least leave with the biggest migraine.

But pain was good, Nick learned. Any pain. That was something they drilled in at the academy. If you're in tremendous pain, think of the positives. First, you're conscious. Second, you're not in shock. Third, you're not paralyzed. And, finally, it meant that whatever happened to you didn't kill you.

Nick's snout was pressed against the windshield, watching the exiting hostages intently. They were immediately escorted to the EMT's that were driving up. The fire brigade had also descended upon the calamity in case they needed more medical personnel and they had the tools necessary to help any mammal caught underneath any rubble. The red fox was relieved that he was seeing so many alive mammals but his heart wasn't entirely glad because he had yet to see one in particular.

The most important one, as he was concerned.

"Come on, Carrots" he pleaded, his breath causing little foggy circles on the window. "I _need_ you to be alright."

He hadn't received any communication from Judy since those texts and that was hours ago. Her status was completely uncertain and given the trigger-happy nature of at least one of the robbers, it didn't look good. And now this just went down; it was even more grim.

The potential for violence was in the back of his mind, but he didn't anticipate anything like this.

Nick was determined to go out there and get some answers.

The fox jumped out of the cruiser and scurried his was over the wreckage toward the bank.

* * *

"This way," Gary pointed.

These catacombs were deathly dark. The modest illumination from their flashlights wasn't enough to penetrate this.

"I really hope you're right," Eddie grumbled. "She's not exactly light, here."

Carter shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but was it not _your_ idea to bring this extra luggage with us?"

"Once again, you lose sight of the big picture" Eddie quipped. "We just stole a king's ransom in cold, hard cash. Then we threatened the ZPD and we followed that up by making good on our threats by setting off a cluster of bombs. Face facts, when they find out we're not among the dead, they will come looking for us."

Gary dropped his bag, getting into Eddie's face, holding up the convoy.

" _ **You** _ said that we would be unidentifiable. You said the whole bank would be, and I quote 'rocks and bones everywhere'. Tell me I'm wrong!"

"And someone in your line of work must know that you always have to have an alternate plan in case something goes wrong. You didn't hear the blasts..." the jackrabbit raised his one ear. "I did. And the big one hadn't gone off. Must have gotten a bad connection, or maybe one of the smaller explosives damaged the device. The point is, the bank is still standing. Which means we have hours, maybe a day or two until they figure out our ruse."

Gary growled "That's. Just. Great."

"STOP!"

The gang all looked at the unlikely source of the outburst. Ted was visibly shaking but continued to speak.

"Look, what's done is done. We can't do anything about it now. Let's just stop fighting and keep moving."

Carter remained slack-jawed for a moment and then grinned.

"Never thought I'd say this but, Ted's making sense. Less quibbling, more walking."

Gary and Eddie shrugged and resumed their retreat below the streets of downtown Zootopia.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Sorry its been a while since my last update. So much has been going on in general but this past couple of weeks in particular.**

 **My dad's moving almost to the other side of the country, so had to help him with everything. But good news, he left me his desktop and I've been waiting for an upgrade. It fact, this is the very first thing I'm writing on it.**

 **I will try to make the next update happen soon. Haven't given up on any of my stories and I don't plan to start now. Hopefully, you are all sticking around.**

 **We don't have very much longer to go, so the next few chapters - hang on.**

 **Oh and Happy Halloween by the way ;-)**

* * *

"Wilde?" asked the perplexed Chief of Police. "What are you...?"

The sight of his newest recruit on all fours like one of his feral ancestors was a strange sight indeed. Nick moved around with purpose.

"Wolford's being tended to in the ambulance," Nick mentioned. "I'm the best nose right now, Chief."

Bogo nodded.

"What can you find in this mess?"

"Something..." Nick mused. "But it's very faint...wait..."

The aroma was getting a bit stronger the more Nick went along the direction toward the safes. Bogo pursued behind him in case something dangerous was around the bend.

"Tread lightly, Wilde. You never know what you might come..." his eyes widened and he stopped dead in his tracks. "...a..cross."

This briefcase laid open with several components sticking out of it. To the untrained eye, it could have been misconstrued as a piece of luggage filled with various TV and stereo parts. But its presence at a crime scene didn't allow the ZPD to entertain the idea that maybe one of the robbers was a hobbyist.

Nick sniffed deeply and winced at the odor.

"Diesel fuel."

That confirmed it.

"Damn it all," Bogo sighed. He grabbed his radio and spoke calmly but clearly. "I need bomb squad down here on the triple. He have a possible live device. And Higgins, make sure that nobody else comes near this area until we have confirmation that it is safe."

"Will do, sir."

Nick looked around, confused. The trail was hot and suddenly it vanished. Wherever it was, the smell of Judy ended at this very spot. Looking down, he noticed something off about the floor. There were these white tiles with rough black stripes splashed across them. All of the tiles looked similar except for one; the stripes were facing sideways. This one was moved and since the pattern was broken, it had to be done from the other side.

"Chief!"

"What did you see?"

Nick pointed at the space beneath his feet.

"See the floor, sir? Now look right beneath the bomb."

The cape buffalo saw the same thing the fox did. The big tile below the one corner of the explosive was facing the wrong direction.

"Katz!" Bogo called up on the radio. "Are you still with the EMT's?"

"Yes, sir" came over the radio.

"Have you found Hopps or any mammal matching the suspects among the survivors?"

A long pause.

"Negative. Oh and sir?"

"Yes, Katz?"

"We have four dead. There was nothing they could do. Apparently they helped shield some of the hostages from the blast."

Nick's face grew anxious as he heard what his superiors was being told. Bogo dreaded the next question.

"Have any of the deceased...?"

"No, sir, just ordinary civilians" Katz interrupted.

Bogo's tone grew slightly angry.

"Those mammals were responsible for who knows how many others surviving. They are certainly _**not** ordinary civilians_!"

The officer contritely apologized and the chief relieved her to continue her work out there. Bogo hung up the radio and gravely clipped it back onto his shoulder. He knew he had some work to do when all was said and done, informing the next of kin. This was the thing he hated the most about his job but he accepted it.

"Help me," Nick said.

"With what, Wilde?"

"Help me move this suitcase."

The taller mammal just looked down at his subordinate like he had asked the most ridiculous thing in the world.

"Are you out of your damn mind?"

"Look, it's probably not heavy but two sets of hands are more stable than one. I mean, what if I drop it or I trip?"

Bogo folded his arms, disapprovingly.

"I know, I know," Nick raised his paws. "Its very dangerous but if this is their escape route, it might be our only chance to find them. And Judy."

Nick's boss raised a brow.

"I mean Officer Hopps," he corrected himself.

"Relax, Wilde," he snorted. "You and Hopps are hardly enemies. We know you've come to care for one another. Its the nature of being partners."

The fox knew in his heart that his concern went beyond an ordinary partnership, even if his other half didn't share the same view. He was never one to mince words but time was of the essence and he didn't want to waste time arguing.

"We're not going to touch it..." Nick looked down at the case. "...not exactly. We're just going to pick it up and move it gently over here so I can lift the tile."

"I don't like this, Wilde" warned the chief.

"If it made it through the explosion, then it can't be that sensitive, right?"

Bogo rolled his eyes. "And how do we know it won't fold like a deck of cards as a result of that very explosion? It could still detonate from just us moving it!"

The two mammals were eye to eye. They would have been snout to snout had it not been for the drastic height difference.

"Sir," Nick's voice was stern but respectful. "I can't wait for the bomb squad. The robbers are missing and so is my partner."

"Remember our conversation not that long ago about rushing into a potentially disastrous situation without thinking?"

The orange-furred officer regarded the gravity of what he was proposing and slumped his shoulders, defeated.

"Fine. You're right."

"Now, you're confident that they made their getaway from below, right?"

Nick nodded.

"The trail stops here so that's the only explanation unless they suddenly grew wings."

"Okay," Bogo nodded. "So this passage would have to lead somewhere."

"They couldn't have dug something like this in such a short time..." Nick paced around the area of the disturbed floor tile with the bomb situated on top of it. "This had to be...it had to be part of the building. We need to get the plans!" his face lit up.

Bogo gave a satisfied smirk.

"Now _that_ is thinking like a detective, Wilde."

* * *

"Ah! Fresh air!"

Carter's triumphant declaration was immediately shared by the rest of the group. None of the crew was claustrophobic but being down there in that musty, dank place would any mammal's breathing erratic.

"Where's the car?" asked Rick.

"Over here," pointed Gary. "Now here's the plan..."

"What do you mean?" barged in Ted. "I thought this was it, what's changing now?"

"Will you be quiet!" snapped Eddie. The less confident grizzly stayed quiet.

"As I was saying..." Gary continued before giving Ted a dirty look for interrupting him. "there was a small detail of the plan that Carter and I withheld in case any one of you newbies got caught. But since we all made it, you can hear about it."

Carter pointed to the two bears and James. "You three take this car with half the money. The rest of us take another SUV a few blocks from here. And we go our separate ways."

"But why?" asked Rick.

"Listen carefully," Carter began. "The ZPD will eventually turn tail and start looking for us. They're banking on us being together but if we're apart, we can easily give them the slip. Sorry, boys but three large mammals like yourselves hanging around with us smaller ones will raise a few suspicious eyebrows. Especially when the APB goes out on a raccoon, two bears, a gorilla, a hare and a timber wolf."

The raccoon smiled at himself. He was at his flim-flam best when he wove logic and a little truth into his deceptions.

His blood went cold when a shot rang out and out of the corner of his eye he saw the collapsing figure of Gary. It was a point blank to the head, blood dripping out of the red dot just above the midpoint between his eyes. He was done.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Carter shouted.

"You're lying."

The deep voice came from James, who remained relatively silent until now. He held his gun steady, now focusing his barrel on the smaller mammal.

"Are you out of your mind, you overgrown moron?"

"You're not the first mammal to burn me while on a job. Your going to disappear with your friends, while leading the cops in our direction" he said indicating the grizzly brothers and himself. "Once we were no longer needed for crowd control, you were going to ditch us and let us take the fall. After all, the ZPD have a better view of us from inside the bank. You smaller mammals are always so tricky. But you constantly underestimate _us_. You think we're big and dumb, right? But in reality, we're just as intelligent as you, only we have raw strength."

The silverback leaned in menacingly over the raccoon, gun still drawn on him.

"Why I could crush you in my hands, no weapons. But I wouldn't dirty myself with your blood." He smirked, glancing down for a moment at his pistol. "This is rather efficient."

"That's enough out of you, big boy!"

The brazen jackrabbit had the primate in his sights and held his arm steady, all while still holding an unconscious bunny cop over his other shoulder.

"Rabbit..." James warned. "You may be quick but you will not take me down in one shot. I will have gotten a hold of you and squeezed the life out of you well before you're next try."

Then the rabbit became aware of the weapons coming on his right and left flank.

"I want to hear it from Carter," Rick said, getting upset. He looked at the diminutive leader. "It's not true. Please tell me this setup was only a story."

Carter's hesitation was all Rich needed.

"Bastard," said Ted, beating his brother by one second. "We trusted you."

The bandit looked up at the younger grizzly.

"Have you ever heard there's no honor among thieves?"

"What about Eddie, huh?" asked Rick. "And Gary down there? What about your commitment to them?"

"They're my friends, you idiot."

James grimaced. "Well you are no friend to me. Now, the two of you...in the car. And you can leave the rabbit."

Eddie knew he was outnumbered and his partner didn't have his weapon drawn right now, so he reluctantly conceded by dropping the bunny on the ground like a sack of laundry. He then locked eyes with Carter, knowing what they likely wanted them to do next. The raccoon and jackrabbit gave sour looks of hatred while relieving themselves of their firearms. Ted quickly collected the guns from the ground while James and Rick kept their barrels pointed at them.

"Let's go," James ordered, indicating the vehicle Carter intended for the three larger mammals.

"I just need to know something," Carter seethed. "What made you figure out everything?"

James snorted and then grinned.

"I was suspicious of you three from the very get-go. How the bears and I were never part of the little pow-wows you've had with the wolf and jackrabbit. Led me to believe you were up to something. Plus you were always working behind the scenes while you made sure that me and the grizzlies were always with the hostages and especially near the windows. Any survivors would be able to recognize us. And the license plate on this getaway car you so generously provided confirmed that you were setting us up as patsies."

Carter glanced down at the tag on the vehicle.

"You think I can't tell the difference between a regular plate and the one they have on cars from the dealers lot?" the gorilla scoffed. "I did time for grand theft auto, you whelp. That means this car is stolen and marked, which means the ZPD would have us in custody while the rest of you would be flying to a faraway paradise."

"So what're you gonna do now?" grumbled Eddie.

"You're gonna stay right here," James replied, opening the massive trunk. "Hop in, boys."

"You're making a big mistake, ape" Carter warned, climbing inside along with his long-eared cohort. "A _big_ mistake."

James just smirked as he closed the trunk and used the butt of his gun to destroy the lock, trapping the two smaller mammals inside. He then walked over to the pile of black bags filled with money and picked up his share.

"Come on, Yogi and Booboo. We need to find a new form of transportation."

"Uh-J-J-James..." stuttered the younger grizzly.

"What?" he snarled at Ted.

He shakily pointed to the asphalt where Eddie relinquished the knocked out female bunny.

Only she was no longer where he left her.

"Ah, hell" Rich sighed.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Here's the next chapter, folks**

 **Sorry its short but I hope you all like it.**

 **;-)**

* * *

Judy had her wits about her ever since she heard the unmistakable ringing of a gunshot. She assumed the worst and caught glimpse of it when the slain body of the timber wolf laid on the ground. Still surrounded by (mostly) towering criminals, Judy remained as still as possible until she saw her opportunity. The apparent mutiny between the robbers was her best chance to slip away and strategize.

She felt the unforgiving asphalt when her kidnapper dropped her without hesitation. But Judy had to bury the pain deep down; she had fallen from more significant height when her and Nick uncovered the location of the abducted night howler victims. And that water below was no better than concrete when she landed.

As the gorilla and two grizzlies were busying themselves with escorting the raccoon and jack rabbit into the trunk, Judy made herself scarce. But she didn't go far. There was a line of trash cans situated by an alley. With her smaller frame, she hid easily

Judy held her chest, as if that would make her heart beat a little steadier.

It wasn't long until her absence was felt.

"What do we do?" asked the younger-sounding bear asked, shakily.

"We keep moving, idiots," growled the ape. "That rabbit's probably a mile away by now, so let's get away before she leads the cops back here."

 _"Smart mammal_ , _"_ she thought. _"I can't let them get away."_

The three large mammals grabbed the discarded bags of money and bolted. Judy searched the body of the wolf, finding a cellphone and began following them, maintaining at least a few meters distance so she can quickly hide if they turn around. She had no issue keeping up with them. A gorilla and two bears were not the most graceful of mammals and to make matters worse, they were tired and hauling over what had to be a hundred pounds of loot.

Judy unlocked the phone's screen with a swipe, luckily the wolf didn't have a pass-code activated. She had the chief's direct line committed to memory, along with Nick's number and a couple others in an emergency. Her parents were slow to adapting to mobile phones and continued to keep longhand address books for years. This gave Judy the skill that a lot of mammals her age or younger were losing, the ability to remember several phone numbers.

"Chief!" she huffed, still giving chase.

The cap buffalo nearly dropped his phone when he heard that voice.

"Hopps! Thank goodness," he then cleared his throat, trying to sound more like her superior. "Are you alright? What's your location?"

"I'm fine, sir" Judy replied. "But we have a dead suspect on the corner of Third and Garrett, makes sense why nobody screamed or went to investigate the shot."

"Hang on, there were shots fired?" his voice growing with concern.

"As far as I know, just the one. One of the suspects, a timber wolf, was gunned down. The raccoon and jack rabbit were locked in a trunk of a car nearby. You'd better send someone down quick to let them out before they run out of air."

Bogo stared at his phone, bemused.

"And just where exactly are _you_?"

"In pursuit of the the three remaining robbers, sir. They're big ones so I might need assistance," she added cheekily. After everything's that happened, she needed a small amount of levity.

The chief of police was impressed by how resilient his newer recruit was.

"What direction are they heading?" he asked.

Judy looked up left to right as she ran, taking in the buildings for any clues. This particular part of Zootopia was fairly new to her.

Instinctively, Bogo put Judy on speaker while he booted up the driving app on his phone to get a map of the city. He typed in the street corner Judy said and it charter with a little red flag.

"Okay, Hopps; what do you see around you?"

"Um, uh...oh wait! I'm just passing Pitbull Gym."

That rung a bell to Bogo. He remembered an old gym downtown that him and the other young officers trained in back in the day. He found it on the map and given the line it made from point A to point B, he figured that the suspects (and Judy) were heading south.

"Hopps, listen to me. I'm calling out to the nearest officers to try and intercept the suspects for backup."

Nick came up behind Bogo with a large rolled up piece of paper.

His eyes looked like they were going to bulge out of his head when he heard his partner's voice.

"Thank you sir, Hopps out."

He hung up the phone and looked down at a stunned Nick.

"She's alive? Is she alright?"

Nick's phone buzzed in his pocket and he quickly checked it. From an unlisted number, there was a text that read "I'M FINE. R U OK?"

"If that's a 597 number, its her" Bogo sighed.

Nick put down the paper so he could typed with both hands rapidly.

"I'M OK 2. SOME INJURED OUT THERE AND A FEW DIDN'T MAKE IT."

He felt bad for a minute texting her that last bit but knowing Judy, she would have asked that anyway. Nick didn't get a reply, so he figured his rabbit was trying to pursue the suspects, now with a heavy heart. He always admired how much she cared for her fellow mammal, even when they were breaking the law. Judy had one rule: she didn't use deadly force to apprehend. Other officers asked her if she would act differently if her life was at risk. Would she break that rule?

 _"Hopefully it never comes to that,"_ Nick thought.

"Hopps says she's going after three of the robbers."

"I thought there were six," Nick said. "What happened to the others?"

"One's dead, the other two locked in a trunk."

Nick's eyes widened "Damn. Guess they turned on one another, eh?"

The fox didn't figure that was his partner's handiwork; too brutal.

"So it would seem," Bogo said.

Nick pointed to the rolled up map of the underground passageways.

"I guess this is completely useless now," he smirked.

"Never mind. Now it's time for what we do best. Let's move."

"Yes sir," the fox said now with a little pep in his step. The hostages were accounted for, his partner was safe and as feisty as ever and they were going to go catch some bad guys.

* * *

It was getting darker and the streets were getting a little more crowded but not by much. For a second, Judy thought she had lost them but found where they had been by the parted mammals on opposite sides of the sidewalk. Apparently that three-member stampede was imposing enough to warrant the smaller civilians jumping out of the way. The robbers might have sung a different tune if they ran afoul with a pachyderm.

She understood why this was taking so long. This neighborhood was mostly medium-sized mammals, like herself. A vehicle large enough to suit their needs wasn't anywhere in sight. Judy was relived of that, hoping that backup would get to where she is before they have a chance to get wheels. Plus, given what happened to the wolf back there, there's no telling they wouldn't kill another mammals in cold blood to take their car.

Judy's heart sank when her keen eyesight took notice of a rhino walking over to his sports utility vehicle. It wouldn't take much for the three mammals to see it.

"GIVE ME THE KEYS, NOW!" bellowed the gorilla, slamming the rhino against the car, making a dent.

"Oh yeah?" said the grey mammal, standing his ground.

His colossal stature gave him a few feet over his attackers, not to mention his brute strength and powerful ivory horn. But he hesitated when the gorilla and two bears pulled their guns on him. Had they been only armed with knives, he would fight because his thick skin made stabbing difficult but a bullet would do it. And he didn't want to not come home to his wife and baby so he was reluctantly prepared to cooperate, which the ZPD always suggests.

"Hey, buddy!"

Rick turned slightly to the small voice behind him but didn't get a chance to completely look around because he got interrupted by a kick to the head. The contact of the bunny's foot was enough to disorient him a bit and drop his weapon. Seeing an opportunity, the rhino picked up the gun and pointed it at the trio.

"You are all under arrest!" said Judy, standing before the towering criminals.

"I think you better do what she says," grimaced the rhino.

"I don't think so," said James, hitting the butt of his gun on the back of Ted's head, knocking him out. The grizzly fell over like a ton of bricks. Judy ducked out of the way while the citizen attempted to catch the bear, but he was heavier than he looked.

"Let's go!" the gorilla ordered Rick but he looked back at his baby brother.

"But...but, Ted. I can't just leave him there."

The primate rolled his eyes and raised his gun.

"Okay, I've had enough" and with that he shot the older bear dead. "What a waste."

Sirens blared as a dozen cop cars pulled up to the scene, bathing the ape in red and blue lights.

"AH!" he held his arm up, blinded by the flashing.

"Drop your weapon and get down the ground! NOW!" came the command over the speaker.

James sneered and fired at the police, emptying his clip. He then discarded his gun and looked down at Judy. She wasn't anticipating this so he caught her by surprise when he picked her up by the collar.

"Put me down this instant!" she commanded, wriggling about in his grip. "This is assaulting a police officer!"

Judy had it up to here with being mishandled by strange mammals today.

"DON'T COME ANY CLOSER!"

The arresting cops hesitated at the threat. James tightened his grip around Judy, holding her close to his chest and began scaling the building. The mammals witnessing this were stunned to say the least.

"Where have I seen this before?" wondered the rhino.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: These last few weeks have been a roller coaster for me. Sorry it came this long, especially where we left everything. Hope this climax makes up for everything.**

* * *

Nick's keen eyesight immediately caught the glimpse of flashing lights half a mile before they even approached the collection of police cruisers. Bogo pulled over and the cops at the scene stood at attention, recognizing their superior straight away.

"What is the situation?" asked the cape buffalo.

A jaguar, not a rookie but still very young, stepped forward.

"Sir? Um, we had one of the suspects Officer Hopps reported cornered here."

The Chief raised his brow "Just one?"

"Yes, sir" he nodded, moving to the side, revealing the slain grizzly brothers.

"Good grief," he grumbled. "So, where is the mammal you had cornered?"

The other officers just looked at each other, too nervous to tell the chief of the escalation of the problem.

Bogo but his hooves on his hips, losing what little patience he had.

" _Well?_ "

The lot was surprised at the source of that question. They looked down at the livid fox officer. Normally Bogo objected to one of his mammals overstepping their bounds, but there was no time for such things. Instead, he stood his ground and allowed Officer Wilde's query linger.

Once again it was the hapless Jaguar who broke the silence.

"Uh...look up, sir."

"Pardon?"

"Chief?" said Nick. "You should really look at this."

Bogo obliged and saw the last thing he expected. The simian was indeed still on the run, but this time he was making his getaway vertically.

 _"You have got to be kidding me."_ he thought.

"Where is Hopps?" demanded Nick, practically jumping on one of the officers.

"Wilde, I'm afraid she's with the mammal in question."

Nick gazed up at the eight story building the suspect was climbing. He was almost to the roof and the lack of efficient lighting made him rely on his natural instincts. He was carrying something...grey...dammit, it was _someone_.

The red fox shot the arresting officers a glare.

"So all of you could not take down one mammal and allowed him to put Hopps **_in danger?_** "

Bogo placed his hoof on Nick's shoulder, mentally telling him to calm down.

"Please do something constructive and have Gilbert send us a chopper."

"One is already on the way, sir" spoke up a zebra cop.

"Well what do you know, finally something useful from you bunch." Bogo chastised his officers.

* * *

"Let me down this instant!"

James ignored the threats from the rabbit in his clutch. His focus was getting away.

The money was long gone, the bags discarded on the streets below. Surely they were now in the possession of the ZPD. The primate didn't care at this point. The ill-gotten gains from the day's daring daylight burglary was a means to an end.

All he could think of was avoiding the clink again. James was determined not to go back and while having the tiny officer with him was a quick and desperate move; it succeeded in bemusing the cops. For now. And she kept him alive.

For now.

It didn't take very much longer for aerial support to arrive. A long helicopter with the ZPD emblem hovered menacingly overhead, shining its spotlight down on the ape.

Feeling panic, he started leaping to the next rooftop. Then another. And another.

The buildings were relatively close together and had similar heights. However, the very next jump was extremely difficult. James was in mid-air when ZPD fired upon the mammal, making him miss his mark and tumble down violently like a rag doll. The flat portion of the roof he was aiming for was a couple stories above. Now he landed on a level surface in between two sloped sections of the neighboring roof.

In the heat of the moment, he relinquished Judy.

* * *

"What's happening?" demanded Nick on his radio.

The pilot replied, "Positive on the target but he fell down a ways."

"What about Hopps?"

"Uh...no confirmation on her yet, Wilde. Chief?"

The cape buffalo then took the receiver from his subordinate.

"Go ahead, Barry."

"Sir, I'm sorry but Gil is giving me the big warning to return to the precinct. I'm running low on fuel."

The Chief grumbled, "Where is our backup?"

"They're coming in about five. Sorry, Chief. It was the best we could do at last minute."

With a sigh, Bogo softened his tone with the mammal who was only doing his job.

"Roger that, Barry."

"Do you want me to come back after I refuel?"

"Negative, officer. Just report to Gilbert and be prepared to give your statement."

"Yes, sir."

It was common practice for any officer, under any circumstances, who unloaded live ammunition on a mammal to be debriefed by a superior. In the case of a killing shot, psychological counseling is required. Some mammals have issues when they finally fire a weapon at another fellow mammal. Its a natural reaction.

"You think she's alright, Chief?"

The usually confident fox was visibly shaken during this whole experience. Bogo rather preferred the cocky little cuss because it meant things were relatively under control.

"I've known her for only a bit longer than you but I believe she is. At least not dead."

"How can you be so sure?"

Bogo huffed, making a smirk.

"Because she wouldn't allow it. You'd have to drag that rabbit from the situation."

* * *

James held his arm, wincing as he rolled over onto his back.

Judy was already on his feet staring down the robber turned kidnapper.

"There's nowhere else to go!" she warned, her chest heaving like mad from erratic breathing. "Give up."

The gargantuan mammal sat, staring up at the helicopter flying away. Judy saw it too.

"Whomever sent this will likely send more to finish the job," the rabbit added.

 _"No doubt,"_ the primate thought.

James was determined to escape from all of this a free mammal but nothing about today was going off as planned. He cursed himself for associating himself with that damn raccoon and his cronies. He also resented how he was saddled with a couple of saps like those grizzlies he left for dead (well one of them anyway). Everything was just falling apart by the minute. James fooled himself for long enough; he knew in the back of his mind that there was no way out.

He's too exhausted to go on. He gives up.

"Go ahead, Cottontail" grumbled James. "Just step aside and let your buddies mow me down. It's over."

Judy had never seen anything like this before. He was waiting for death.

"You're right," she finally said. "It _is_ over."

Her paws were quick; the gorilla blinked and totally missed the rabbit's movements. Before he knew it, he was tethered to the cop by the wrist.

The ZPD, long before the induction of smaller mammals like Nick and Judy; were wrestling with the dilemma of dealing with criminals (and later officers) of varying sizes. It made the usage of generic handcuffs impractical. So Chief Bogo implemented a special bracelet custom-sized to the officer it was assigned to. And this bracelet was attached to a very strong plastic ribbon that could wrap around any sized mammal with little difficulty and could as easily be tied and tightened, if necessary. Your average scissors or knife could not penetrate this material and crooks wouldn't dare try to cut it themselves. The amount of force you would have to use to make a dent in it would run the risk of slicing your own limb off. The precinct had the preferred tool to unhitch arresting officer from suspect.

"What the hell are you doing?" James asked, his deep voice a combination of annoyed and confused.

Judy took a deep breath and let it out calmly.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."

All he could do was gaze at this small but brazen cop.

"Sorry, but I'm not letting you take the easy way out. You deserve to stand trial and do your time."

He chuckled. "By the book, eh? Well let me ask you something; what makes you think I won't just jump off this building and take you with me?"

Judy swallowed nervously. She couldn't entertain that possibility because it would hurt her composure.

"You won't," she said shaking her head.

"Oh?" he titled his head. "And why is that?"

"Because I'm giving you a choice. You may have chosen a life of crime but one isn't born a criminal. Life can at its best be messy and at its worst be horribly unfair. I don't know what you had to go through to make all of...this look like a path to take. But that was the past and we are here in the now. And right at this moment, you are being given a choice. If you cooperate and surrender, I will speak on your behalf. That will have an effect on your sentence."

James looked around at the Zootopian skyline, never remarking how beautiful it looked at night before until now.

"Why go through all this trouble?" he asked the bunny. "Those guys shoot me and you can wipe your paws of this whole thing."

"Again..." Judy stepped a bit closer. "The easy way out was never my style. And I'm not gonna start now. Now are you coming with me or what?"

James grimaced.

"It's that important to you, rabbit?"

The lagomorph nodded sternly.

"But you still haven't told me why."

"You want to know why?" she asked.

The gorilla nodded.

"Because enough mammals have died already today. A life is a life."

He was not expecting that answer in a million years. His experiences on the wrong side of the law got him acquainted with cops, lawyers, judges and prison guards. Majority of them were all hellfire and vengeance toward him. No matter what level of verbal or physical abuse he had to endure; it was morally justified by the likes of these mammals because he was at the end of the day: a bad guy. But here was the most diminutive of animals (without being a rodent) standing before him like she was ten feet tall. And she said to his face with no sense of sarcasm that even his life is worth a damn.

James wasn't familiar with Judy's aversion to deadly force. She did what she had to do, even putting her own life at risk, before taking another mammal's life. In her eyes, such a thing was not her call. She knew that the badge she wore gave her a little more justification for self defense in the eyes of the citizens. However, Judy argued before with her peers, her expert training on numerous ways to take down a suspect should make her even more willing to not kill. A civilian can carry a gun but a cop knows more than one way to subdue a threat. Killing should always be a last resort to Judy Hopps.

And she prayed this was one of those times it wasn't necessary.

"What's it gonna be?" Judy asked the hulking mammal.

He silently stood up, dwarfing the bunny's size even more.

"Alright," he sighed heavily. He was clearly tired. "You win."

Judy breathed a sigh of relief. It really was over now.

The increasing sound of rotor blades snapped her out of her sense of peace. In the corner of her amethyst eyes, here came two ZPD copters with their guns trained at the primate. Judy jumped up, waving her free arm and shouting as loud as she could. Unfortunately, she was not in the sights of the spotlight and her cries were overridden by the loud choppers.

"NO! ! ! ! ! STOP! ! ! ! ! !STOP! ! ! ! !"

Her warnings unheeded, the helicopters began firing at James. The bullets from the machine guns pelted him, bursts of blood exploding all over his back. He lasted for maybe a couple of seconds from sheer nerve but that wasn't enough. He began to fall over, his massive body hurtling down the sloped roof.

Judy panicked as she was being dragged on her belly down with him.

She fought hard, scratching the roof until it hurt too much. Nothing was going to stop her. Judy might as well have been chained to an anchor from a ship. As James' body began its decent, the copters followed with their searchlights and ultimately caught glimpse of Officer Hopps helplessly tied to the suspect.

The last thing Judy heard was desperate shouting from a megaphone somewhere above her. It was incomprehensible and became even more fuzzy as she felt the tremendous weight from below forcing her paws to depart from the edge.

 _"It's over."_

* * *

 **A/N: Stay tuned for the final chapter. I will try to crank this out soon.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry, sorry but the holidays have been insane (both at work and at home) but my schedule is returning to normal and I'll be damned if I make it through the first week of 2017 without giving you what was promised.**

 **Thanks to ALL of you for the reviews and likes. Its encouraging, since these characters aren't my usual stomping ground and a lot of writers have done** ** _Zootopia_** **justice so I couldn't help but feel a bit intimidated.**

 **What will I do next? Dunno, but I'm never short on ideas. Just need to see which ones are worth doing ;-)**

 **Later, and Good Luck New Year**

* * *

Carter laid on the shiny, reflective table. It glistened under the fluorescent lights as much as his restraints. He sat like that for the better part of an hour, staring at the wall and letting the coolness of the metal pressed against his face give him some strange comfort.

His ears twitched at the sound of hooves approaching and keys being jingled. The loud lock disengaged and the door swung open, surprisingly, with no noise whatsoever. Still keeping his head on the table, only now turning the other way to see the visitor, Carter silently took in how this massive cape buffalo practically took up the entire doorway. He didn't need any introductions; the chief of the ZPD was a recognizable figure, regularly giving speeches on the news to brief the public.

The mammal sneered at the smaller one and effectively slammed the door. He took an uncomfortable ten seconds of silently staring Carter down before taking a chair opposite him. Little details like that were classic interrogation techniques designed to scare the accused into talking.

"Well, Carter...assuming that is your name...I must confess we don't have a whole lot on you here" Chief Bogo said, gesturing to a case file he placed open on the table. He began rifling through it. "But you're...ahem... _career_ just goes on for days and days."

The raccoon's posture stiffened and he was more eye to eye with the cop.

"I'm going away for a long time, am I?"

Bogo raised a brow, quizzically. "You think?"

Carter's fuzzy face widened into a grin.

"Yeah, kind of a dumb question, I know."

The chief just snorted.

"But let me ask you something..." Carter started. "If you already have charges up the rear against me; then why all this?" He was referring to the whole interrogation. "I mean...why bother?"

Bogo cleared his throat.

"Mr...erm...Carter; I am an old-fashioned mammal, especially when it comes to my work. Now I may have all the physical evidence in the world, two dozen witnesses, the whole deal...but I feel that is all incomplete without the confession."

"Oh?"

"The who, what and how are handled by other departments. I'm more interested it the _why_. If you're not comfortable answering this without your lawyer present, then I can always..."

Carter held up his paws, intending to only raise one but his cuffs had other plans.

"Not necessary, chief."

The cape buffalo crossed him arms, giving the raccoon the floor.

"There was this girl...let's call her Emily. We went out for a few months; best damn time of my life as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, as luck would have it, just when i was contemplating making her my mate...she told me she was pregnant. According to the doctor, it was gonna be no fewer than two. Little hard to tell at this time. Well, my little hustle was barely making enough to keep just me afloat, let alone her. But a couple of kits crawling around? And less than two months until they were born?"

He cracked his neck before continuing.

"So, yeah; I needed money. And fast."

"One last job?" suggested Bogo.

Carter nodded.

"Wasn't hard to pick the mark. Gary had a grudge against them for stiffing him on a security alarm job last year." He smirked. "Wasn't very smart. And Eddie, well...he was just a pyromaniac but not a bad mammal when you went out for drinks."

"So that's your story?"

"Not very exciting, I know but what're you gonna do?"

Bogo just stood up and was about to leave until something made him turn back around to Carter.

"Tell me something, Carter."

"Yeah?"

"Officer Wilde told me that you didn't care for killing. But, that explosion that nearly leveled the bank would say otherwise. There was absolutely no guarantees any mammal would have survived that."

Carter just sat there, stoic.

"If you lied to him then, it stands to reason you're probably lying to me now."

He shrugged his tiny shoulders, "Guess you'll never really know...chief."

It bothered Bogo to no end but there was nothing else he could do. Mammals watch crime shows on TV and think that cases are like these jigsaw puzzles where all the pieces fit perfectly. While cause and effect are things, in real life there will always be details left unresolved, even if the case is closed.

* * *

Judy was out of consciousness for a while. Fortunately, the prone body of James Kerchak was enough to soften the blow of her big fall. However, she was far from unscathed from the calamity. Doctors told Bogo that Hopps sustained four broken ribs, a sprained left wrist and her left leg was broken. The right of her body was mostly scrapes; apparently the left side was where she landed.

Once the rabbit was awake, the medical personnel, headed by Dr. Willie Wagtail filled her in. She was grateful to be alive and (relatively) in one piece. But Judy's focus was swiftly shifted to the fate of the mammal she tried to take into custody. She held out some hope that he survived somehow but the grave expressions from those around her confirmed that her efforts to end this whole thing non-violently was in vain.

Unfortunately, one of the very first visitors Judy had was Marco, the pilot of the chopper that fatally shot down the gorilla.

Judy was gracious to him at first but her look at him soured when he admitted his part in the shooting. She admonished the pig for his over-reaction, pointing out that she tried to warn them. He confessed that he didn't hear her. Judy didn't accept that, retorting that when they shined the search lights, it was clear she wasn't in any danger and their actions were uncalled for. Clearly not making any friends, Marco contritely left Judy alone, not looking forward to the report he had to make regarding the incident.

About twenty minutes later, a knock came to the door.

The bunny looked over to the open doorway, not in any particular mood for any more visitors, considering the last one. But the identity of the mammal coming in, softened her scowl into a smile of relief.

"Oh Nick!" she sighed heavily, wincing from the sudden movement of her chest.

"What's wrong?" he came rushing to her side.

"These busted ribs are going to be a pain in the butt," Judy smiled, shaking her head. "I mean the chest, er...you know what I meant."

Nick wanted so much to hug his partner but she looked so fragile right now, he hesitation even though it killed him.

"Is it really bad?"

Judy made a funny face.

"As opposed to really _good_?"

"Sorry," he sunk his head.

The fox looked behind him and found a chair, sitting in it beside the hospital bed.

"So what's the damage?"

"Oh, some broken ribs and a leg, mostly. That's the biggest; everything else will heal in time."

Nick wasn't saying anything, which was really off-putting for Judy. He was a virtual chatterbox and to be stoic and silent like this made her uneasy.

"Is something wrong?"

"Um...well..."

She could see it in his face that he was heavy, that something was on his mind.

"This isn't going to be easy for me," he blurted out. "But I'm gonna try anyway. It would help me out if you don't interrupt because otherwise I might chicken out and not tell you what I've been thinking about all day."

"Nick..."

"Let me finish, Carrots. Please."

The rabbit reluctantly lowered her paw for her partner to continue.

"I almost thought more than once that you weren't coming back and..." he swallowed nervously. "...I was worried I was going to be left alone. And I'm not just talking about as a cop."

She wasn't expecting that to come out of the fox's mouth. Despite everything surprising that's happened earlier, the day wasn't through with her.

"Nick, you don't understand..."

"Darn it, Fluff! I'm trying to tell you that I like you."

Judy rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"I really like you too, Slick."

"I don't mean like friends, I know we _are_ good friends I think, but..."

"But?"

The red fox took the grey paw into his own.

"I love you, okay?" He closed his eyes, feeling like the stupidest mammal alive. "I mean...is...is that okay?"

Judy teared up some but couldn't help but laugh at her silly fox.

"What's so funny?" the fox stiffened.

"You, you big dumb goon!"

If it were possible he could turn redder than he already was, he would.

"Did you really just confess your love to me and then asked if it was 'okay'?" she struggled holding back more chuckles.

Nick furrowed his brow, deciding to try and embrace the levity the bunny was creating.

"Well, I didn't want to be a typical pushy predator."

"Oh really?" Judy looked to her right quickly. "Nick, we don't have to talk about this here. Can we later..."

His posture sunk slightly.

"I'm sorry; you probably don't..."

Judy winced as she sat up, ignoring the pain, to grab the fox's paw once again.

"You have it all wrong, Nick. I feel the same."

"What?" his eyes bugged out.

"For a while, actually. From inside that bank, I had no clue what was going on. When I saw that bomb, I knew they were going to try something. After I finally came to, I was far away from the building so I didn't know you were alright until you texted me back."

He smiled "You have no idea how relieved I was when you sent that to me."

"Oh, yeah I do."

Nick looked down and realized that he and Judy were still holding hands. He just stared at their paws, enjoying the warmth emanating between them.

"So what happens now?" he asked.

Judy shrugged slightly, her upper body still very much in pain.

"Well, I haven't given it much thought but we can probably catch a cup of coffee; maybe a movie sometime?"

"That sounds nice, Carrots."

"But doctors said I'll be laid up for a few weeks until bones heal and whatnot."

She expected his ears to droop in disappointment but instead he made a sly grin.

"Sounds to me that you're gonna need a really good...um...friend...to spend time with you, make sure you're cared for?"

Judy smiled, looking into his green eyes. She could only imagine being stuck at home with her favorite mammal. Other than the obligatory visit from her folks after hearing the news, there would have been a lot of down time, alone. But Judy felt serene about the welcome company and knew it would make her recovery go that much faster.

"Think Bogo will let you stay away for that long?"

Nick gave it some thought and shook his head.

"Buffalo Butt will understand; and if he doesn't, I haven't cashed in my vacation days yet. Besides, nobody else would besides you is dense enough to have a fox for a partner. And do you think Chief will let me loose on the streets unsupervised?"

Judy gave him a look.

"You raise a good point."

The two started laughing, the stress of the day finally washing over them. Judy quickly winced and started coughing.

"Whoa, you okay?" Nick leaned over, concerned.

"It's fine," Judy grunted in reply. "Maybe I shouldn't laugh too hard until I'm a little better."

Nick sighed.

"What time do you get out of here?"

"Maybe the end of the week," she replied. "Why? Eager to get me all to yourself?"

He made a rather bold move and lovingly stroked Judy's right ear. It felt silky smooth in his paw. To his delight, she didn't relent and allowed him to keep touching her. Nick had to admit that he always loved her ears. Her big amethyst eyes were very striking, but to him Judy's long ears were her best feature. It was like an emotional barometer. She could control her body language and her facial expressions, right down to the nose (the twitch was no longer involuntary). However, her ears always gave her away and from what Nick could tell at this moment, she was comfortable with his touch. And that simple gesture meant so much.

"In a way," he finally answered.

 _"Awwwwww, you guys!"_

Nick's ears perked up and he quickly scanned the room, looking for the source of the strange but familiar voice.

"What was that?"

Judy smiled like a guilty criminal.

"I was trying to tell you..." her head motioned toward the table beside the bed. Right on top of it was a two-way radio. "Standard procedure, Nick. An officer in a hospital is monitored for security reasons."

The fox picked up the device and pressed the button to talk to the mammal on the other side.

"Hello?" Nick said.

"Say hi, Ben!" called Judy.

A static pause was all they heard for a few seconds until...

"Hey," replied Clawhauser.

His tone sounded like he was crying and laughing, both presumably for the same happy reason.

"Uh...Spots?" Nick sighed, nervously. "Did you happen to hear ALL of that?"

He hesitated, "No."

"Are you lying?"

"Yeah."

Nick rolled his eyes, shaking his head. He gazed back at Judy who was suppressing a giggle. Playfully, the red fox tossed the radio into his bunny's lap.

"You do realize that he's going to tell the entire ZPD, right?" Judy said.

"Eh, screw it. Just makes my job easier."

Judy tilted her head "What job?"

"Letting everyone know that the cutest cop on the force is taken."

Her ears shot up. " ** _Cute?_** "

"Did I say cute? I meant _pwecious_."

"Oh yeah?"

Nick made is way much closer to Judy in mock intimidation.

"Yeah."

He was caught off guard when she grabbed his black tie and pulled him down into a kiss. Had it not be for her injury, this would not have been necessary. Plus, she liked putting one over the fox.

"Don't push your luck, Slick."

"Uhh,," he chuckled. "That was...unexpected."

Judy wasn't letting his necktie go anytime soon.

"Ah, come on. You know you love me," she grinned.


End file.
